We would never give away a lady’s age, but Windsor Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac is old enough to recall some visual treats of the pre-fluoride era: elementary school classmates with revolting green teeth and high school peers who became toothless “gummers” before graduation.

Those lingering images might help explain why she’s baffled and appalled that seven councillors and the mayor, bowing to a strident lobby, have chosen to ban fluoride from Windsor’s drinking water and give tooth decay a new lease on life.

What options are left when the decision-making process goes off the rails? Where do we turn when our elected representatives ignore science and medical expertise on an issue with huge health consequences for future generations? The only clear recourse, sadly, is to take it to the people in a referendum or plebiscite.

Gignac is no fan of referendums. She’s seen how the American system has become clogged with ballot questions, many of them obscure, that make voting a head-scratching ordeal. In Canada, where Quebec separatists have twice come close to destroying our beloved nation at the ballot box, referendum is a dirty word.

But Gignac and her clear-headed colleagues, Fulvio Valentinis and Hilary Payne, now believe the only recourse of the “silent majority”, the folks waking up and realizing what the Gang of Eight has inflicted on them, is to “let the people” decide, as Michigan residents did last fall in rejecting the bridge company’s attempts to block construction of a new downriver competitor.

“I think the argument for a referendum is pretty compelling in terms of the impact it will have on the health issue,” said Gignac. She believes Windsor is now on a “slippery slope” that will lead to calls for elimination of chlorine from our drinking water — “what could be more toxic than chlorine?” — and an end to compulsory vaccination for childhood diseases. “This is a dangerous, dangerous game,” said Gignac. Indeed it is. In Pakistan volunteers are being cut to pieces for the “crime” of attempting to vaccinate children against polio.

The three councillors are now being peppered with messages from citizens dumbfounded by council’s move. “People are shocked. They didn’t see this coming and neither did I. It never occurred to me that council could make a decision like that,” said Gignac.

“I’m hearing from people that are really upset with the decision because they never thought it would pass. They didn’t think it would go through and weren’t concerned,” said Valentinis. Now they want action. “I think a referendum is absolutely appropriate. This decision affects everyone, “ said Valentinis. “This is where the democratic process should be applied to the fullest.”

Municipal referendums are rare in Windsor. The last one, in 1997, endorsed casino gambling. A petition signed by 10 per cent of eligible voters, about 15,000 signatures, would be required to place the fluoride issue on the 2014 ballot.

Payne agrees it’s the right thing to do but is far from optimistic about the outcome. He suspects fear would drown out reason.

Case in point: Waterloo, an intelligent high-tech community with two major universities and a college, voted narrowly, 50.3 per cent, in a 2010 referendum to remove fluoride from its water.

Payne referred me to a University of Calgary document which pointed out that plebiscites are an uphill slog for fluoride supporters. For starters, they act as emotional “lightning rods.”

The media, despite an obligation to provide balanced coverage, naturally finds it more newsworthy to cover dramatic negative events like flawed anti-fluoride research. There’s also an unequal burden.

“In a plebiscite the proponents are tasked with creating confidence in all aspects of the issue, while the opponents only need to raise one concern or doubt,” the study explained. There’s also a “confusion hypothesis.” Voters faced with apparent controversy “may vote for the safer option even if they were initially in favour of fluoride.”

In other words, the deck is stacked. The anti-fluoride fraternity, which appears to enjoy nothing better than rallying its members, bright-eyed graduates of Google U, to bring politicians to heel, must be licking its chops at the thought of duking it out with the mainstream medical and science communities.

“But my gut feeling is that anything is better than doing nothing,” said Payne. “We must give the silent majority the right to speak. God knows we owe that to future generations.” As the 80-year-old explained on the night of the vote, he couldn’t have looked his five little grandchildren in the eye if he had supported council’s decision to abandon the fight against tooth decay.

I find it interesting that the three councillors who took this stand in favour of science and logic are all old enough to remember the “good old days” of green teeth, toothless gums and painkiller-free dentistry.

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